#498 - Pat Corrales

I know nobody was really a fan of these old San Diego uniforms but they sure do stand out against some beautiful outfield grass like what is behind Pat Corrales in this photo. That lawn is nearly perfect in what I’m pretty sure is Wrigley (those row houses behind right field look about right). This was it for Pat as he’d never get another MLB at bat after 1973. It was his second season doing his back-up thing for the Padres after he’d done it a bunch elsewhere in the NL. I like this card but it pales next to his one from ’73, an action shot in which he appears to have been just bowled over by Fergie Jenkins but still has the ball in his hand (Jenkins was out). There’s a good chance this shot is taken from that same day.

Pat Corrales went to Fresno High School in California where he played baseball with future MLB guys Dick Selma and Jim Maloney (Tom Seaver would be another big league alumni a few years later). He was signed by the Phillies after his senior season of ’59 and put in some time in D ball around his military work. In ’60 he showed good power with 60 RBI’s and also led his league in putouts at the same level. In ’61 he continued his ascent by hitting .309 in B ball and was making a name for himself with excellent defensive work. In ’62 he hit only .206 in a year split between A and Triple A but his average was higher at the upper level. He had a much better ’63 in Double A with a .260 and then had one of his best years in ’64 with a .304 and .367 OBA in Triple A, the year he made his debut in Philadelphia. He had a slow start in ’65 but was called up anyway after starter Clay Dalrymple was hurt and back-up Gus Triandos was aging too fast. Pat had what would be his busiest season and was named to the Topps Rookie team as he took over the starting catcher role for a bunch of games and did some solid defensive work. After the season he was involved in a big trade that sent him, Alex Johnson, and Art Mahaffrey to the Cards for Dick Groat, Bill White, and Bob Uecker.

With St. Louis Corrales didn’t get too much work behind Tim McCarver and he spent most of the season on the bench. In ’67 he spent it all back in Triple A where he had his best offensive year hitting .274 with ten homers and 54 RBI’s. He then got traded to the Reds just prior to ’68 spring training with Jimmy Williams for fellow catcher Johnny Edwards. That trade cleared the way for hot rookie Johnny Bench and so Pat’s near-term career path was pretty much set as Johnny’s back-up. Around his ’68 numbers he hit .273 in a half-season of Triple A. The next few seasons he got props for being considered the best back-up catcher in MLB which is sort of a mixed blessing I guess. In ’72 the Reds got a younger version of him in Bill Plummer and Pat spent most of the first half of the season back in Triple A where he hit .316 in 98 at bats. That June he went to San Diego for fellow catcher Bob Barton where he finished the year splitting time with Fred Kendall. In ’74 it was back to Triple A where he hit .249 before being released. Along with his stats from the card he hit .266 in the minors and went 0 for 1 in his only post-season appearance.

Corrales moved into coaching right away and in ’75 went 58-72 in the Padres chain before joining the Rangers late that year as a coach. He kept that role until the last game of the ’78 season when he was named manager, which he did through the ’80 season when he was replaced. He then returned to Philly as a coach in ’81 until he again assumed the manager role the next year. In ’83 he had the Phillies in first but GM Paul Owens was unhappy with the team being only a game over .500 so he replaced Pat with himself (he did that a few times) and took them to the Series. Pat almost immediately hooked up with Cleveland and by the end of the year was managing the team, sort of famously going from a first place team to a last place one in the same season. He took the Tribe through a very improved ’86 where he went from over 100 losses to 84 wins. That set the old SI jinx in motion when the magazine picked them to win the division in ’87 but being the Indians they finished dead last with over 100 losses again. That finished Pat there and in ’88 he managed in the Detroit chain, going 58-84, his final gig as a manager. He then coached for the Yankees (‘89) and the Braves (’90-2006) before hooking up with the Nationals where he coached (’07-’08, ’09, and ’11) and did admin work in between. In 2012 he was a special advisor to the team and in 2013 he’ll do the same role for the Dodgers.

Topps gets an A-plus for its prescient cartoon. Pat went 572-634 in his MLB managing career, which is pretty good when you consider the teams he managed. Another good star bullet is his record of reaching base three straight times on errors in one game.

San Diego’s contribution to the big centennial 1976 baseball bash was Nate Colbert’s huge double-header in ’72 in which he had five homers and 13 RBI’s in Atlanta. I covered that one on Nate’s post. He hit two out in the first game with five RBI’s, and three in the second one – one a grand slam – with eight ribbies. His five homers in a day tied a Stan Musial mark from a bunch of years back. Colbert, who grew up outside St. Louis, was at that game.

Let’s try one of my boys for this one:

1. Corrales and Tony Taylor ’64 to ’65 Phillies;

2. Taylor and Don Money ’68 to ’71 Phillies;

3. Money and Bobby Mitchell ’73 to ’75 Brewers.

#497 - Bobby Mitchell

Like Tom Murphy of the last post, Bobby Mitchell revives something. With Bobby it’s his own card. After getting a rookie card in ’71 he got nothing from Topps the next two years and he returned with this shot in Oakland. He’d get cards the next two seasons as well and then he wouldn’t get another one – that I know of – until ’79 and that one was from Japan. But that’s how things worked out for this guy. It took him a long time to get up top and he has some pretty big bio holes which will get illustrated below. But in ’73 he was around a bit. After hitting pretty well in Triple A he returned to Milwaukee in early July and then split time between outfield and DH. Bobby wasn’t the best fielder and he tended to have trouble with inside fastballs which helped contribute to pretty high strikeout totals. But he was fast and the Brewers weren’t exactly rife with outfield All-Stars. He’d get increasing at bats the next couple years and then a lot more after he did his big move overseas.

Bobby Mitchell grew up in Norristown, PA, and in high school he was a big deal basketball, baseball, and track star. His senior year of ’61 he was all-state as a guard in hoops with his 13.8 ppg. In baseball as a shortstop and relief pitcher he was all-district with a .313 average. And in track he broke the school and district record for high jump his first time out with a 6’4.5” leap. After his graduation he...frankly, I have no idea. In ’65 he pops up again when he qualifies for the AAU high jump championship with a 6’9”. And he gets signed by Boston just prior to that summer. He could have been in school I suppose, though there’s no record of that, or maybe the military, but that would be an awfully long hitch. The rest of that summer he played outfield in Rookie ball and did pretty well. In ’66 and ’67 he showed pretty good speed in Double A, particularly the latter year when he swiped 36 bases. But he was also averaging over 100 K’s a season and in ’68 when he moved up to Triple A his average fell a bunch and even though he put up some fat triple and stolen base (42) totals, the Sox left him unprotected in the Rule 5 draft and the Yankees snapped him up. For the next three seasons he stayed in Triple A for NY. ’69 was a mixed bag because he hit real well but made a slow recovery from some knee damage the prior year and missed some time. In ’70 he showed some decent power but his average fell a bunch. He made his MLB debut that summer. In ’71 it was all Triple A with a revived average until a June trade sent him to the Brewers with Frank Tepedino for Danny Walton.

Once Mitchell went to the Brewers he moved to Milwaukee the rest of the season. He started a few games all over the outfield but outside of a big day in which he had two homers and five RBI’s his offense was a tad light and he didn’t get too many looks. After the season he was sent back down where in ’72 he reported huge numbers in Triple A but missed over five weeks from a car accident and then more time due to cartilage damage to his knee. His OBA was a huge .459 but again his high K totals – 76 in 273 at bats – scared the brass. But he made it back up the next year and stayed in ’74 and ’75. That first year he got a few starts in right and center but was used mostly as a DH and pinch hitter, raising his average to .243. In ’75 he put in a bunch of time in left to kick off the season because regular guy Johnny Briggs was injured. In mid-May he was hitting .333. His power numbers had a pretty big move up also, but over the course of a bad season for the team, his average and his playing time fell, the former to .249. He spent ’76 in Milwaukee’s spring training and then shortly after the season began he moved to Japan to play for the Nippon Ham Fighters. There he joined Walt Williams for a couple seasons and Gene Locklear and Sam Ewing for a season apiece. His first two seasons there he accumulated 57 homers and 141 RBI’s while hitting about .244. He had his biggest year in ’78 when he led the league with 36 homers and put up 93 RBI’s while hitting .274 in an all-star season. In ’79 he hit 22 out in his last year as a player. Up top he finished with a .235 average in 609 at bats with 86 runs, 21 homers, and 91 RBI’s. In the minors ex-Japan he hit .286 with 82 homers and over 150 stolen bases.

When Mitchell returned from Asia he moved to California where for many years he was a corrections officer. He also led baseball clinics for local kids and made his high school’s hall of fame. He still resides in central California.

Bobby could have gone 0 for 47 and still won that batting title. He’s another guy who sort of half scripts and half prints his signature. I’m sorta dying to know what he did those four years after high school.

By the time submissions needed to be made for the baseball centennial of 1976 the Brewers hadn’t really done very much milestone-wise. Tommy Harper in ’70 had put up the first ever AL 30-30 season which was nice, but Milwaukee opted for a different event from that year: the return of baseball to the city for the first time since the Braves split following the ’65 season. They got their big crowd of over 37,000 at County Stadium and the fans were certainly zealous enough, but the highlights really end there as the team continued its Seattle ways and lost its April 7 home opener 12-0 to Andy Messersmith and the Angels. Steve Hovley had three hits but there was understandably few other big Brewer moments from that day.

This one’s easy because these two obviously played together:

1. Mitchell and Tom Murphy ’74 to ’75 Brewers.

#495 - Dick McAuliffe

For the first time in a long while Topps slips us a non-Traded traded card. In the ’73 off-season Detroit sent long-time second baseman Dick McAuliffe to Boston for young outfielder Ben Oglivie. Dick has an airbrushed “B” on his hat – I thought they always cut and pasted the logos – but otherwise looks pretty unblemished in an away flannel at Yankee Stadium. Like Danny Murtaugh of a few posts ago Dick always looked old – check out his ’62 rookie card – and while I suspect this photo is not from ’73, it could be from any one of the past ten seasons. Dick had a subpar season in ’72, a year in which it seemed all of Detroit’s aging stars threw all they had at a division title. And while his at bats declined, all his other offensive stats had a nice bounce in ’73. That year he pretty much platooned at second with Tony Taylor, but he got a card and Tony didn’t so maybe there was an emotional victory in that. He’d opined during the season that he’d have liked to spend his last couple seasons back near his Connecticut home so Detroit obliged him with the trade. He’d end his career with the Sox, but not in the way he’d probably hoped.

Dick McAuliffe was a pretty impressive shortstop while in high school in Farmington, CT, where he also played football and basketball. Signed by Detroit during his senior year of ’57 he got off to a slow start that summer, hitting .206 in D ball. He would actually finish high school during the next couple off-seasons. Around then he took on his celebrated batting stance. He’d been strictly a push hitter, sending nearly all his hits to the left side (he was a lefty). He began using a wide open stance and then closing it a bit when the pitcher went into his windup and rolling onto his back foot with his right one high up in the air (this can be seen on his ’73 action card). ’58 was much better with his new stance as he hit .286 at that level and .241 when called up to A ball. He spent ’59 in B and A ball around his service time and then ramped things up considerably in A ball in ’60 by hitting .301 with 109 runs, 21 triples, and a .404 OBA that got him some year-end looks in Detroit. In ’61 he hit .353 with a .418 OBA and 14 triples in half a season of Triple A ball before he came up for good.

The ’61 Tigers nearly won the pennant as just about every regular hit the crap out of the ball. McAuliffe got called up when regular shortstop Chico Fernandez was injured in early July and he did well enough to be the regular guy the rest of the season and also started a few games at third base. In ’62 Fernandez had one of his best offensive seasons though just about everyone else on the roster had a downtick and Dick spent the year switching starts at second and third with regulars Jake Wood and Steve Boros, outhitting each of them. In ’63 Detroit slid to a losing record and there was a bunch of transitions on the team, the most successful being Dick’s taking over shortstop pretty much full time. While he wasn’t the best defensive guy around, he was a hustler, and he hit way better than the average shortstop in his day, posting averages and especially OBA’s far above league norms. He recorded his biggest power year in ’64 and then the next two years was an All-Star as Detroit picked up Jerry Lumpe to take over second base, which really helped solidify the middle infield. In both ’65 and ’66 Dick missed about a month due to a hand injury the first year and food poisoning the second. By ’67 Lumpe was running out of gas and it was pretty apparent that Ray Oyler, who’d stepped in for Dick while he was injured, was the better defensive guy at short. So during the season Dick was moved to second, for the third time in four years he hit over 20 homers, and he was again an All-Star, now in a new position. The Tigers barely lost out to Boston for the pennant and in ’68 Dick helped take them all the way by leading the AL in runs with 95, topping out career-wise with 24 doubles and ten triples, and setting a record by not grounding into one double play all year. His most high-profile moment that year, though, wasn’t a great one. Thinking Tommy John was trying to bean him after the ChiSox pitcher threw two by his head, Dick rushed the mound and tackled John, separating the pitcher’s shoulder and getting him a five-game suspension.

Detroit was a contender for a new division title in ’69 until McAuliffe went down mid-season with a knee injury after generating first-half numbers that more than matched his ’68 ones. When he returned in ’70 he had his best year of plate control, getting 101 walks against 62 K’s, but his average and power slid a bit. In ’71 and ’72 he ceded some starts to Tony Taylor as his average didn’t bounce too well. He returned to the playoffs under Billy Martin in ’72 and then had a pretty good offensive year in ’73. In Boston the plan was for him to do back-up work at second and third behind Doug Griffin and Rico Petrocelli. He actually ended up getting more work than expected as they both were injured but he only hit .210 in 272 at bats with little power. In ’75 he took a job managing the Sox’ Bristol franchise and he did great work, guiding the team to the playoffs with a record of 81-57. Towards the end of the season Boston needed a reserve guy at third and Dick didn’t think Butch Hobson, his third baseman, was ready yet. So the team promoted Dick instead and he got a little work down the stretch. He had a tough moment, though, when a couple errors of his lost a game and sent the Fenway fans in a booing frenzy. He was left off the post-season roster and that was it for him. Dick finished with a .247 average on over 1,500 hits, 231 doubles, 197 homers, and 697 RBI’s. He also posted a .358 OBA and hit .213 in twelve post-season games with two homers and four RBI’s.

After playing McAuliffe did some work with baseball camps before owning and operating a business that repaired and installed washing machines and dryers in laundromats. For a brief time in the late Seventies he played professional softball. He sold his business in the late Eighties and since then had done some public appearance and autograph show work.

Dick has a flowing formal signature and gets a star bullet for another record of his. There’s the cartoon about his batting stance.

Bostton contributed its “Impossible Dream” pennant-winner of 1967 to the baseball centennial in ’76. The Sox had finished ninth in ’66 but had a pretty great group of young gamers in ’67 with Carl Yastrzemski, George Scott, Reggie Smith, Rico Petrocelli, Tony Conigliaro, and Mike Andrews all doing really nice offensive work. Jim Lonborg was putting together a Cy Young year and a lot of the bench guys were stepping up. The big scare was Tony C’s midyear beaning that took him out of baseball the next couple years. But about then the Sox picked up Gary Bell from Cleveland who did what Fred Norman did for the ’73 Reds and gave Boston another hot starter in the rotation. Yaz was on a tear all year on his way to a Triple Crown and MVP. And Dick Williams ran a tight ship, which worked for a bunch of kids. It was a tight race and Boston didn’t win outright until the last game of the season when it beat Minnesota at home 5-3 in which Lonborg won his 22^nd game and Yaz went 4 for 4 with a couple RBI’s. Boston beat Detroit and Minnesota by a game and the White Sox by three games to go to the Series.

There was another veteran who went to Boston near the end of his career in ’74 and he comes in handy:

1. McAuliffe and Juan Marichal ’74 Red Sox;

2. Marichal and Ed Goodson ’70 to ’73 Giants.

#492 - Mike Rogodzinski

Hey, it’s a rookie card! Hey, it’s a final card! Baseball careers went like that sometimes but at least Rogo –that was this guy’s nickname – gets immortalized in his Ray Ban’s. Mike gets his shot taken at Candlestick, a place he went o for five in ’73, so it probably wasn’t his favorite place to be. But ’73 was a tough year for him to wrap his arms around. After leading Phillies hitters in spring training with a .345 average and starting ’73 off nicely in Triple A Mike was a May call-up by the Phillies to replace Deron Johnson, who was traded to Oakland. By the end of June he managed to go o for 18 in the games he started but seven for 13 as a pinch hitter. He’d get a bit better hitting from a position the rest of the year but never really caught on. But Greg Luzinski must have enjoyed having him around when Mike was up top. Pronouncing Greg’s surname after giving a shot at Mike’s must have been a piece of cake.

Mike Rogodzinski grew up in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. In high school ball he was a pitcher and an outfielder and was a four-year varsity starter who was going great guns until he was injured his senior year. He still hit .416 though and then went to Southern Illinois to play. His sophomore year of ’68 was a good one as he was all-conference with ten homers and 36 RBI’s. Skip Pitlock, who would have a Topps card in ’75, was the team’s leading pitcher. He also helped take the Salukis to second place in the CWS which they lost to USC and Brent Strom. He then put in another season before being drafted in the second round by the Phillies in ’69. He returned to school for a semester and signed with Philadelphia in January 1970 and then that summer led his Double A league in triples. He also tended to generate some pretty big strikeout totals – 129 that first year. In ’71 at the same level he was an all-star though he missed a bunch of games with a broken thumb. In ’72 he got bumped up to Triple A and a pretty crowded outfield – Oscar Gamble, Joe Lis, Byron Browne, Mike Anderson, and Bill Robinson were other MLB guys sparring for time there – so his playing time shrunk a bit as his K’s ratcheted up. But so did the homers and so after that fast start in ’73 he got pushed upstairs. ’74 didn’t go crazy great for Mike in Philly with only one hit in 15 at bats and his highlight was probably a bases-loaded walk issued to him by Mike Marshall that won a game against the Dodgers. Back in Triple A his average sunk to .238 and his power ebbed a bit as well. ’75 was split between Double and Triple A as he experimented a bit as a catcher but the offensive numbers that year were pretty weak. He got his third and final call-up to Philly where he hit .263 mostly in the pinch. It would be his final season as a player and Mike finished with a .219 average with a couple homers and twelve RBI’s in 114 at bats. In the minors he hit .252 with 64 homers and 271 RBI’s.

Immediately after playing Rogodzinski stuck around the Philadelphia area where he took a gig selling furniture at Nate Ben’s Reliable, a local retail icon. He did that through ’89, which was pretty good timing since the following year the store was busted big for under-reporting its revenues and under-paying its sales taxes. Mike testified for the prosecution and was not involved in the scam but the three Ben family members who owned the place all went to jail and the store filed for bankruptcy a few years later. Since then Mike’s name has come up occasionally in local Phillies events though there is no information out there regarding his professional activities since the late Eighties. He has a Facebook page and appears to still reside in the Philadelphia area.

This is Topps' only stab at giving important info on Mike and the guys do OK, though they could have expounded a bit. Rogo made the all-tournament team in ’68 and later that summer in the Olympics he actually won the whole thing with a game-winning double in the finale.

In 1976 the Phillies submitted as their entry for that year’s baseball centennial Jim Bunning’s perfect game. That game was pitched June 21, 1964 against the Mets in the first game of a double header. It was Bunning’s second no-no as he’d thrown one for Detroit in ’58. It was an impressive game – yeah the Mets back then were terrible, but still – in that Bunning went to three balls on a batter only twice and only four Mets balls made it to the outfield. Tony Taylor turned in the big defensive gem when he speared a hot drive by Jesse Gonder between first and second in the fifth inning. He, Dick Allen, and Johnny Callison provided the offense as Bunning won 6-0 to go 7-3 on the year. He struck out ten.

1973 was the only year Rogo had decent time up top so that’s our starting point:

1. Rogodzinski and Tommy Hutton ’73 to ’75 Phillies;

2. Hutton and John Mayberry ’78 Blue Jays;

3. Mayberry and Roger Nelson ’72 Royals.

#489 - Danny Murtaugh/Pirates Field Leaders

Danny Murtaugh had one of those mugs that looked like it was always old. Here he poses in the Pittsburgh dugout during the first year of his fourth term managing the team. Danny had heart problems – in the literal but certainly not figurative sense – and had to step down from the manager gig a couple times because of them. Danny was pulled back this time after his buddy Bill Virdon was fired in September; Virdon had replaced him for a time in ’71 and then full-time after Danny resigned following that season. The Pirates were a game under .500 but only two back when the change happened. Willie Stargell was having a great year and the new outfield kids Richie Zisk and Dave Parker were stepping up but the loss of Roberto Clemente was a bummer and the sudden loss of control by staff ace Steve Blass was too much for Virdon to overcome. Danny got his team within a week into first place by a game-and-a-half. But the Mets were steamrolling then and Danny’s overall record of .500 the rest of the year wasn’t enough to fend them off. The Pirates finished third with a record of 80-82 and Danny went 13-13. My guess is that from the lack of either an armband or hint of a patch on his left sleeve that this photo is from an earlier tenure. That guy behind him could be Blass or even Virdon but it’s tough to speculate since I can’t even place the year.

Danny Murtaugh was born and raised in Chester, PA, where his high school only had a baseball team for one season so he played some industrial league and town ball during that time. In ’37 he and a bunch of his buddies headed to Maryland for a tryout by the Cards and Danny made the cut. That year and the next he played D ball, hitting .297 and .312 with lots of speed and a little power while playing second. In ’39 he hit .268 in Double A and in ’40 and ’41 he was back in Single A where he hit .299 and .317 before being sold to the Phillies in mid ’41. Philadelphia called Danny all the way up that year and he immediately took over second, impressing nobody with his .219 average, but a lot of people with his 18 stolen bases that led the league. He was a regular the next two seasons – though in ’42 he split time pretty evenly between second, short, and third – and raised his average each year to .241 and then .273. He didn’t strike out too much either and that last year put up a .357 OBA. Late that year, too, he got drafted by Uncle Sam and the next two years he would see service in both Europe and Asia in WW II, which was pretty rare. He came back in ’46 and despite a good spring training and opening game he was sold to the Cards that May. For St. Louis it was back to the minors where he hit .322. Then in ’47 he was drafted by the Braves and again stuck at Triple A mostly where this time he hit .302. After that season he was traded to Pittsburgh and in ’48 he would have his biggest season up top, claiming second while hitting .290 with 71 RBI’s, by far his highest total at that level. His average fell a bunch the next year as he lost some time to ailments but in ’50 he rallied to .294 with a lot more at bats. ‘51 was his last season in Pittsburgh and he was a reserve guy, finishing his MLB time with a .254 average with 49 stolen bases. He played a bit in the minors the next two years and finished at that level with a .297 average. In ’52 he continued his relationship with Pittsburgh by managing in the minors, which he did through ’55 when he was called up to coach the Pirates. In ’57 he replaced Bobby Bragan as manager and in ’60 took a team that lost 92 games his first year to the Series where he famously beat the Yankees. His first stint lasted through ’64 when he moved to the front office after suffering a heart ailment. He was replaced by Harry Walker and stint two for Danny was during ’67 when he replaced Walker after he was fired. Stint three came in ’70 when his health was well enough that he managed the team to the division title before again winning the whole thing in ’71. After again stepping down he took over in September ’73 and the next two years again won division titles. He retired again after the ’76 season and finished with a record up top of 1,115-950 and won Manager of the Year in both ’60 and ’70. His retirement didn’t last too long as he passed away shortly thereafter from a stroke. He was 59.

Don Leppert grew up in Indianapolis and then attended Wabash College where he played football and threw the discuss and javelin in addition – I assume – to playing baseball. I have read that he graduated and also that he only was there two years but given his career kicked off in ’55 when he was 23 my guess is the former. A catcher, he was signed by the Braves that year and hit .260 that summer in B ball. He spent the next three years in Double and Triple A where he hit around .230 but showed some good power with 20 homers in ’57. In ’59 he hit .270 in Triple A and then in ’60 hit .256 with 17 homers at the same level which prompted a sale to Pittsburgh. He began the year pounding the ball for a .386 average and was promoted to the Pirates that June. He played sparingly the next two seasons and after averaging about .267 was traded to the Senators. For the Nats Don had his biggest year in ’63, splitting starting time behind the plate and hitting .237 with six homers and 24 RBI’s in 211 at bats, his most up top. Those numbers got him named to the All-Star team but after a significant average drop in ’64 he returned to the minors. He hit .229 with 15 homers up top for his career. In ’65 he hit .338 as a backup for DC’s Triple A team and in ’66 finished as a player with Pittsburgh’s club. He finished with a .261 average at that level. He then began managing, going 61-59 for a Single A Pittsburgh club in ’67 before moving up to coach in the bullpen from ’68 to ’76. He was on the short list to succeed Murtaugh but when that didn’t happen he moved on to coach at Toronto (’77-’79) and then Houston (’80-’85) where he rejoined Bill Virdon. He then managed in the Twins system from ’86 to ’87, going a combined 128-150, before in ’88 taking over as the Twins director of minor league instruction. In ’93 he was moved to head of the team’s Florida operations. In ’97 he managed the Goldpanners in Alaska for a summer and went 38-18. I believe that since then he has been retired.

Bill Mazeroski was born in West Virginia and moved to Ohio as a young boy. There he was an all-state basketball guard as well as a shortstop. His coach got him a tryout with the Pirates and he was signed in ’54 when he was 17. He only hit .235 that year in A ball but his pivot was so amazing he was moved to second. In ’55 he hit .293 at that level and in ’56 .306 in the Pacific Coast League which leveled out somewhere between Double A and Triple A. Promoted to Pittsburgh that summer he immediately took over second base and he’d put on a defensive show until the early Seventies. Long knocked on his offense he actually turned in some pretty good numbers there as well. In ’57 he hit .283 and in ’58 .275 with 19 homers in his first year as an All-Star (he’d have seven of those) and a Gold Glove winner (eight of those). In the big Series year of ’60 he hit .273 with 64 RBI’s. In ’62 he led the NL in intentional walks and had 81 RBI’s. He topped out in ribbies in ’66 with 82. He generally stayed injury-free throughout the Sixties, missing about a month in ’65 when he tore a muscle in his throwing arm. In ’69, though, he tore a muscle in his leg and missed pretty much the whole season after June. He returned as the starter in ’70 but hit only .229 and had slowed considerably in the field. He finished the next couple seasons as a reserve behind Dave Cash. Retiring after the ’72 season he hit .260 with over 2,000 hits, 138 homers and 853 RBI’s. In the post-season he improved considerably with a .323 average, two homers, and five RBI’s in 12 games. Defensively he was a monster leading the NL nine times in assists (he is fifth all-time), five times in putouts (seventh), eight times in double plays (first), and three times in fielding percentage. He was a quasi-coach in ’72 and stayed on full-time in ’73. He quit well before this card came out to spend more time with his family. He opened and ran a golf course and restaurant back in Ohio for a number of years and started an annual fund-raising golf outing that is still ongoing. From ’79 to ’80 he coached for the Mariners and he has since then done spring training work for the Pirates. His number was retired in ’89 and he was elected to the Hall in 2001 in what became a very contentious event. In 2012 he was able to coach on the Pittsburgh bench for a game.

Don Osborn hailed from Idaho where he pitched in industrial and semi-pro leagues until 1929 when he threw a bit for a couple D level teams and then one in ’30. He then has a fat five-year blank on baseball-reference but actually pitched in the Washington-Idaho league during that time and from each year from ’33 to ’35 led his team to the pennant. In ’36 he signed with Seattle of the Pacific Coast League and went 11-9. But he fell to 2-10 the next year and then signed with Vancouver, a B level team that had a soft affiliation with the Cubs. After winning 18 games for them in ’38, 13 in ’39, and 18 in ‘40 he took over managing the team, won two titles in two years, and as staff ace went a combined 40-8. He then moved to Chicago’s PCL affiliate Los Angeles where he continued to pitch and manage the next five years, winning 18 in ’45. He continued to pitch and manage in the Chicago system through ’51, going 17-3 in ’48, and went 501-386 as a manager for them overall. From ’52 to ’57 he managed in the Phillies system, pitching occasionally, and put up a record of 465-400 for them. By then he’d picked up the handle Wizard of Oz for his ability to work with pitchers. He pitched his last game in ’54 and won over 220 games in the minors with an ERA of about 3.10 but never threw higher than Triple A. During the off-seasons of pretty much his whole career he was a stagehand in Hollywood. In ’58 he moved to the Pittsburgh system, first as a pitching troubleshooter and then as a scout. He took over various minor clubs for partial seasons in ’59, ’65, and ’67. During that time he coached Satchel Paige. From ’60 to ’62 he was a roving pitching coach which he also did in ’66-’67 and ’68-’69. In between he aped Danny Murtaugh with a bunch of stints up top as Pirates pitching coach, including ’63-’64, '70-’72, '74-’76, and ’78-’79. In ’73 he scouted for a season. Just prior to spring training of ’79 he had to step down due to illness. He passed away later that year from cancer at age 70.

Bob Skinner grew up in La Jolla, California and was signed out of high school by the Pirates late in 1950. In D ball the following summer he pounded the ball at a .472 clip before moving up to A ball where he hit .283. He then spent all of ’52 and ’53 pulling his military hitch in the Marines. When he returned in ’54 it was straight to Pittsburgh where he was moved to first base from his regular outfield position and hit .249 as a rookie. The move to first didn’t go crazy well and in ’55 Bob went back to Double A where he hit .346 around some injuries. He went back to Pittsburgh in ’56 as an outfield reserve but didn’t have a great sophomore season. That changed the next year when a hot start moved him to the regular left field job which he would retain through ’62. He hit .305 that year and then .321 in ’58 when he was an All-Star. By then he earned the nickname The Duke of La Jolla. In the Series year of ’60 he put up his biggest RBI total of 86 while hitting .273 and was again an All-Star. In ’61 he missed some time to injury but he bounced back nicely in ’62 with a .320 average, 20 homers, and 75 RBI’s. In ’63 Willie Stargell’s arrival pushed the Pirates to trade Bob to Cincinnati mid-year for Jerry Lynch. For the Reds Bob did back-up outfield work and pinch hit duty which he would continue to do for St. Louis after he was traded there during the ’64 season. That trade landed him back in the Series and he would play out his career with the Cards in ’66, finishing with a .277 average, 103 homers, and 531 RBI’s. He also hit .375 with a couple RBI’s in his six Series games. He moved into managing right away, going 116-91 in a season-plus in the Phillies system and winning a title in ’67. Midway through ’68 he moved up to Philadelphia to coach and then manage after Gene Mauch was fired in the wake of problems with Dick Allen. Philly was going through a long retrenchment then and Bob went 92-123 in a bit over a year until he resigned during ’69 after also having issues with Allen and management. He finished out the year back home announcing for the Padres. He then had a long run as a coach: for San Diego (’70-’73 and ’77); Pittsburgh (’74-’76, ’79-‘85); California (’78); and Atlanta (’86-’88). From ’89 to ’92 he managed in the Houston chain and went 276-292. Since ’93 he has been a scout for the Astros, though for the past few years on a limited basis.

The Pirates entry for the ’76 baseball centennial was alluded to above: Bill Mazeroski’s homer to win the ’60 Series. It was and remains the only walk-off homer to win the seventh game of a World Series. The first three games were offensive onslaughts by the Yankees who got 48 hits while taking a 2-1 lead. But in Games Four and Five Vern Law and Harvey Haddix gave up a combined 15 hits while winning two for the Pirates at the Stadium. A 12-0 Yankees blowout back at Forbes set up Game Seven in which NY tied things up 9-9 in the top of the ninth with a single by Mickey Mantle and a Yogi Berra groundout against Haddix, who’d just entered the game in relief. Mazersoki led off the bottom of the inning and smashed his famous shot to give Pittsburgh its first title in over 50 years.

We get to do the double hook-up since Danny played a bunch in the majors. First as manager:

1. Murtaugh managed Dock Ellis ’70 to ’71 and ’73 to ’75 on the Pirates;

2. Ellis and Doyle Alexander on the ’76 Yankees;

3. Alexander and Andy Etchebarren ’72 to ’75 Orioles.

Now as a player. This will be a long one:

1. Murtaugh and Ralph Kiner ’48 to ’51 Pirates;

2. Kiner and Ernie Banks ’53 to ’54 Cubs;

3. Banks and Milt Pappas ’71 to ’72 Cubs;

4. Pappas and Brooks Robinson ’57 to ’65 Orioles;

5. Robinson and Andy Etchebarren ’62 and ’65 to ’75 Orioles.

#487 - Ted Martinez

1973 was a pretty typical season for Ted Martinez. Despite the acquisition of Felix Millan – pretty much the only regular not hurt during the year – to take over second base, Ted put in time at three positions: shortstop, third base, and center field. At the beginning of September, just as the Mets were starting their climb out of last place, Ted got a rare start at third in a double-header against the Phillies and tagged Steve Carlton for four hits, including a double and a homer, and four RBI’s to support Jerry Koosman’s shutout win. It was Ted’s highlight of the season since by the time the post-season began most of the regulars were back and he was limited to late-inning defense work. Here he poses at Shea, looking remarkably like – as a poster from the Mets fan page points out – an actor from “Mission: Impossible”, a big show back then.

Teodoro Martinez grew up in the Dominican Republic and was signed by the Mets in October ’66 after being spotted in a summer league back home. In his first year of ’67 he hit .216 in Rookie ball before upping his average to .248 in A ball. In a fitting prelude to his career up top he got starting time at second, short, and third. After the season he was selected by Houston in the minor league draft but after not making the cut out of spring training the next year the Mets took him back. That year he settled at shortstop as he hit .301 between a couple Single A teams. In ’69 he moved up to Double A where he hit pretty well for a shortstop and in ’70 he had his best minor season at Triple A Tidewater with his .306, nine triples, and 13 stolen bases. That year he got his debut in NY when Ken Boswell went down for a few games with an injury. After starting off the ’71 season with a .297 in Tidewater he was promoted to the Mets that summer for good.

Martinez had an admirable rookie year in ’71 as he spelled Bud Harrelson at shortstop and Boswell at second and put up a .288 average despite limited plate time. He was a free swinger at the plate, struck out a bit much, and rarely walked, which would hurt his ability to get more time. But his versatility in the field made him necessary so in ’72 when both Boswell and Harrelson were dogged by injuries and poor averages, Ted got a bunch of starts, including some in the outfield. Offensively he led the team in triples and finished third in stolen bases and had his best year in the field with only one error in 47 games at second and three in 42 games at shortstop. After the excitement of ’73, ’74 was a big downer as there was no stretch run magic. Ted, though, got his most time in the line-up that year and though his average tumbled a bunch and his defense was not so hot, he put up by far his best RBI total with 43. After the year he was traded to the Cards for Jack Heidemann and Mike Vail.

After getting into a few games in the outfield for St. Louis, Martinez was sent to Oakland in May of ’75 for pitcher Mike Barlow and a minor leaguer. Fresh off their three straight Series titles the A’s were a bit transitional in ’75 due to the retirement of Dick Green and the loss of Catfish Hunter to free agency. Ted specialized in late-inning work across the infield and did a nice job defensively with zero errors at second and third. He then repeated that role in the playoffs. But the following May he was released and he was shortly thereafter signed by Cincinnati for whom he put in the rest of the season at Triple A where he hit .255 with 25 stolen bases while playing principally in the outfield. That December of ’76 he was plucked by LA in the Rule 5 draft and the next three years he would reprise his role with the Mets. Ted wouldn’t see too much plate time since his work backing up second, short, and third was mostly late-inning stuff. But he did a pretty good job on offense, hitting a combined .280 over that period. Twice he played on pennant winners, though he didn’t see any post-season action. He was released shortly into the ’80 season and he returned to the DR to coach the next couple seasons. Then in ’82 he began a three-year run in the Mexican League, two with Campeche and his final one with Tabasco. Ted finished up top with a .240 average and put in 282 games at shortstop, 168 at second, 97 at third, and 54 in the outfield. He got no at bats in the post-season. In the minors he hit .274.

Martinez played winter ball in the DR and in Puerto Rico during much of his career and after his playing career ended he returned home where he has since both coached and managed baseball, though I’ve been unable to find any specifics.

The parenthetical name returns as do a couple star bullets alluded to above. A funny story about Ted comes via Kiner’s Korner, the old Mets post-game show hosted by Ralph Kiner. Apparently when Ted first came up in spring training he was unaware that hotel accommodations were made for the players and he lived outside for his first few days of camp. Funny for us I guess, but not so great for him. Here is a shot of Greg Morris, the actor Ted resembled:

Minus Ted’s near-unibrow it is a pretty close resemblance.

For the ’76 baseball centennial the Mets offered the team’s ’69 World Series victory over the Orioles. That was a pretty good one considering the team’s history up to that point. Outside of any AL team at the top of the 20^th century, it was the quickest a team was a Series champ in its existence. The Mets surprised the crap out of the mighty O’s, a team that had won 109 games during the regular season and then swept the Twins in the playoffs. But NY had won 100 themselves and between Donn Clendenon’s slugging (a 1.071 average), some huge outfield defensive plays (Swoboda and Agee), immaculate pitching (a 1.80 team ERA), and some luck (that J.C. Martin bunt was a killer), everything worked and the Mets were the darlings of NY for once.

Another quick hook-up results from another Hall of Famer:

1. Martinez and Willie Mays ’72 to ’73 Mets;

2. Mays and Steve Stone ’71 to ’72 Giants.

#484 - Carmen Fanzone

This is the second of three cards Carmen Fanzone had in his career and the photo memorializes his best season, which was either ’72, when he played a bunch and had eight homers and 42 RBI’s in only 222 at bats, or ’73, when he hit .273. That’s because this shot almost definitely comes from the same photo shoot as his ’73 card, which was his first. But they are both quite mild compared to his ’75 card with that monster mustache. Carmen was an excellent fielder – he even got props from Sparky Lyle – whose soft hands were as nimble on grounders as they apparently were on trumpet keys. In ’73 he backed up the corner infield guys: Ron Santo at third and a whole host of guys at first. Then he had a year with the ‘stache, a year in the minors, and it was on to the music world.

Carmen Fanzone grew up in Detroit where he played both music and baseball. After high school he went to Ferris State where he hit .464 for the freshman team and then .418 with three homers and 23 RBI’s in 17 games as a sophomore. He then transferred to Central Michigan University – also attended by Dick Lange from this set a couple years later – where he appears to have played ball only his first year of ’63. Coincidentally he got his preview of Wrigley by playing in the team’s marching band in both ’63 and ’64 when it did the halftime show during Bears games. In the winter of ’64 he signed with the Red Sox and that summer between school sessions pounded the ball awfully well for two A teams while splitting time between second and third. In ’65 it was all outfield at the same level. From ’66 to ’68 he played in Double A, played mostly first and third, and that last season was his league’s mvp. ’69 was his military hitch year so he didn’t play too much. But he came back with a big year in Triple A in ’70, all at third base, and made his debut in Boston. The Sox that year were sort of rudder-less at that position since George Scott played there as much as anyone and he got hurt. So Carmen was pretty psyched when he was called up but the Sox instead went with John Kennedy, a light-hitting ex-Yankee and Pilot, and Carmen really didn’t get too much of a look. That he had four errors in five games at the hot corner may have contributed to that. After the season he went to the Cubs for Phil Gagliano.

For the Cubs Fanzone had a big first act in the minors, again winning an mvp title, this time for Triple A Tacoma. He then finished out the year with the Cubs with a few games in the outfield. He led the team in hitting in spring training of ’72 and then got a break when Ron Santo got hurt that year and had a hot start at the plate. Though he cooled off, his power numbers stayed at impressive levels and he also worked at first and second. In ’73 he pretty much stuck to the corners and got some pinch-hitting work. In ’74 he was back to working almost exclusively at third in relief of Bill Madlock, but his average slid to .190. After the year he was released and in ’75 he hooked up with San Diego’s Triple A franchise in Hawaii. There he played more first than third and though he hit only .217, got on base at an over .400 clip. That was his final year and he finished his minors career with a .292 average with 102 homers, 571 RBI’s, and a .398 OBA. Carmen hit .224 up top with 20 homers and 94 RBI’s in 588 at bats.

From there it was on to music. Fanzone had finished his degree at Central Michigan and taught and played with various performers, including Lou Rawls and an offshoot of Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass, the Baja Marimba band. He then moved on to do union rep work in LA, which he was still doing in 2011. He married Sue Raney after playing also. She is a jazz singer who has been nominated for four Grammys. Carmen was inducted into the Ferris hall of fame in 2003.

Topps highlights Carmen’s season in ’68 but his ’71 was even bigger. In “The Bronx Zoo” Sparky Lyle’s story about Carmen is that he was super strong, especially in his hands. He was forever squeezing a rubber ball to keep them strong and once Sparky – who’d played with Carmen in the Sox minors – and a teammate cut up the ball and Carmen nearly tore them up.

Continuing the theme from he last post, the Cubs also submitted a milestone home run for its entry into the baseball centennial celebration of 1976. The game took place May 12, 1970 at Wrigley against the Braves and it was a big deal because both teams were in first place at the time. The game’s starters were Ken Holtzman for the Cubs and Pat Jarvis for Atlanta. The Braves went up 2-0 in the first on a wild pitch by Holtzman and on Ernie Banks’ first at bat in the bottom of the second he stroked a solo shot to left off Jarvis to become the ninth player to reach 500 career homers. The Cubs went on to win the game 4-3 in extra innings.

Let’s use a pitcher to do the hook-up:

1. Fanzone and Milt Pappas ’71 to ’73 Cubs;

2. Pappas and Hank Aaron ’68 to ’70 Braves;

3. Aaron was on the ’73 Braves.

#483 (cont) - Atlanta Braves/Braves Team Records

For part 2 of the Braves team card we get the checklist. The front of this one has all the 40-plus homer guys plus the whole outfield outside of Sonny Jackson. There are two Hall of Fame signatures in Aaron’s and Niekro’s. And Davey Johnson should be there also, just on his managing props. Time to pick up the bios.

Dick Rudolph was born in NYC and pitched in high school and also at Fordham University. In 1904 – when he was 16 – he even threw in a game for Providence, the same team for which Rabbit Powell played. After his freshman year at college he played summer ball for a local B team, going 3-3 with a 2.50 ERA in ’06. He then spent the next six seasons in Toronto, first an A league team and then a Double A one, where he averaged 20 wins with a 2.45 ERA each year. During that time he was drafted by the Giants and put in a few innings in NY in ’10 and ’11 but then got returned. In May of ’13 he was traded to Boston for cash and outfielder Buster Brown, who must have had nice shoes. He won 14 as a rookie and then in the Miracle Braves season of ’14 went 26 – not 27 – and 10 with a 2.35 ERA including 12 straight wins down the stretch to help Boston reach the Series. There Dick pitched super ball, going 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA in two complete game starts and got a ring. He won 22 in ’15 and 19 in ’16, both with excellent ERA’s, but the team was slipping south again and the next four years his record slipped to 39-50 with about a league-average ERA. By ’20 he was helping out coaching which became a full-time gig the next year and lasted through ’27, a year in which he also threw a few innings. He finished with a record of 121-109, with a 2.66 ERA, 172 complete games, 27 shutouts, and eight saves, plus that excellent Series work. He also hit .188 with a couple homers, and batted .333 in the post-season. In ’28 he both owned and managed an A league team in Waterbury, CT, and then after the team folded coached and managed the next couple years in Maine for a B team. He then became an undertaker in upstate NY which he continued to do – it was a family business – after he hooked up with Harry Stevens to run some concession stands at NY stadiums. He passed away in 1949 in NYC at age 62.

Salida Tom Hughes was from Salida, Colorado and was given his nickname to distinguish him from Long Tom Hughes, with whom he nearly played. This Tom pitched some C ball in 1904 and ’05 and, though he went only 24-44 during that time, was picked up late the latter year by the New York Highlanders in the Rule 5 draft. He went a combined 3-0 in a few games in NY the next two seasons but pitched mostly in the minors during that time and went 25-5 in A ball in ’06. After averaging 15 wins in ’07 and ’08 he spent all the next two seasons on the NY staff, where as a swing guy he went a combined 14-17 with a 3.20 ERA. The latter year he pitched a perfect game over nine innings before losing in extra innings. After that season he was sold to Rochester, then an A team that would move up to Double A. For them Tom pitched four seasons, averaging 16-11 years, before being sold to Boston in September 1914. For the Miracle Braves he won both his starts but was shut out of any Series work. In ’15 he went 16-14 in 25 starts with a 2.12 ERA while leading the NL in games finished and with nine saves. In ’16 he went 16-3 with a 2.35 ERA and five saves in pretty much the same role. He had a nice season in ’17 though his work load dropped considerably, and he only got into a couple games in ’18, his final season. He finished 56-39 with a 2.56 ERA, 55 complete games in 85 starts, nine shutouts, and 17 saves. He did a nice job keeping runners off base and when he was done he’d only put on 938 in his 863 innings. And that’s it. Tracking this guy down has been near-impossible except that he passed away in ’61 in LA when he was 77.

Chick Fraser came out of Chicago and was pitching in organized ball by 1894, when some reports claim he was a batboy, though since he was 20 then that seems unlikely. He went 12-18 that year with a high ERA and had control issues that would dog him for his career. In ’95 he won 23 in A ball and then was sold to Louisville, then an NL team. He went 12-27 his rookie year with a 4.87 ERA while leading the NL in walks and wild pitches. He improved to 15-19 in ’97 but fell back to a poor record in ’98 before he was sold late in the year to the Spiders. Prior to the ’99 season he was sold to the Phillies where he had his best seasons. He went 21-12 in ’99 and won 15 in 1900 before jumping for a season to the A’s where he went 22-16 and led the new AL in walks. The next three seasons with the Phillies he went a combined 38-54 with not great ERA’s but put together three straight seasons where his strikeout totals beat his walk ones. In ’03 he threw a no-hitter. In ’05 he went to the Beaneaters as part of the deal for Togie Pittinger and for them went 14-21 with his walk totals leading the NL. He then went to Cincinnati for a year before going to the Cubs in ’07 and putting together two nice years as a spot guy – 19-14 with a 2.28 ERA - though he got no Series action. Shortly into the ’09 season he was apparently assigned to the minors but refused to report, taking him out of baseball. He played semi-pro ball in Chicago in 1910 and then in ’11 did report to the team to which he was assigned in ’09 and went 4-6 in A ball. In ’12 he moved to B ball where he pitched – 6-6 - and managed for a year. That was it for his playing time and he finished with a record of 175-212 with a 3.67 ERA, 342 complete games, 22 shutouts, and six saves. In ’13 he hooked up with former teammate and brother-in-law Fred Clarke in Pittsburgh and both coached and scouted for the Pirates though 1930. He then managed a season in B ball and then joined the Dodgers the next year for whom he also scouted. His last gig was with the Yankees as a scout. He joined the team in ’39 and then got sick, possibly from diabetes. He passed away in ’40 shortly after having his leg amputated. He was 69.

Irv Young was nicknamed Cy the Second or Young Cy when he played for obvious reasons. He was born in Maine and by the time he was 17 was working on the railroad in New England. He pitched local ball and in ’03 tried out for and made an independent team on the west coast at age 25. There he went 4-6 with a 3.47 ERA before returning east the next year to win anywhere between 15 and 18 games at the same level. In ’05 he got purchased by the Beaneaters and had a big rookie year, going 20-21 with a 2.90 ERA for a team that only won 51 games. He led the NL in starts, complete games (41), and innings (378). His shutouts were an NL record for a rookie until broken by Fernando Valenzuela in 1981. And it wasn’t until ’79 that another NL pitcher got both 20 wins and losses the same season. In ’06 Irv led the NL again in the same categories but his record slipped to 16-25 though his ERA stayed the same. In ’07 it slipped again to 10-23 but this time his ERA popped a run. In ’08 he began the season 4-9 with a 2.86 ERA before a mid-year trade sent him to Pittsburgh for Tom McCarthy and Hawley Young, ironically nicknamed Cy the Third. For the Pirates this Cy had a nice short season as a swing guy, going 4-3 with a save and a 2.01 ERA, but was sold to the minors after the season. After going 23-18 for the A league Minneapolis Millers in ’09 he was purchased by the White Sox and spent ’10 and ’11 in Chicago where he went a combined 9-14 with a couple saves and a high ERA. ’11 was his last year up top and Irv finished 63-95 with a 3.11 ERA, 120 complete games, 21 shutouts, and four saves. In ’12 he returned to Minneapolis to win 16 and he remained in Double A through the ‘16 season, twice more winning 20 games. He went 98-85 at that level. He then returned to Maine where, among other things, he coached local ball. He passed away in ’35 at age 57 in Brewster.

Warren Spahn grew up in Buffalo, NY where as a kid he played a lot more at first base than he did as a pitcher. His dad taught him most of his mechanics, including his big leg kick and his curveball. When Warren got to high school he had an all-state guy at first so he moved to pitcher full-time. He was signed by the Boston Bees out of high school in 1940 and then got hurt his first season in D ball, though he went 5-4 with a 2.73 ERA. But he got healthy for a ’41 in B ball in which he went 19-6 with a 1.83 ERA and a ’42 in A ball that was 17-12 with a 1.96 ERA. He made his debut early that second year in Boston, but it didn’t go crazy well. Then after that season he enlisted for WW II and by the time he returned during the ’46 season he was one of the most decorated baseball-playing servicemen with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. As a 25-year old rookie that year he went 8-5 as a swing guy. His sophomore year was huge as he went 21-10 and led the NL in shutouts, innings, and with his 2.33 ERA. In ’48 he won 15 as his ERA popped a bit, but he did get his first post-season action, throwing well in the Series loss to Cleveland. Over the next 13 seasons – that was also his lucky number – he won at least 20 eleven times. During that time he led the NL in ERA twice, strikeouts four times, complete games seven times, and shutouts three times. He won his Cy in ’57 when he led the Braves back to the Series and beat the Yankees, though he didn’t pitch terribly well. They went back in ’58 and Warren pitched super, going 2-1 with a 2.20 ERA, though that time NY got them back. In ’60 and ’61 he threw no-hitters. In ’62 he slipped to 18 wins though he again led the NL in complete games. Then in ’63 when he was 42 he had one of his best seasons, going 23-7 with a 2.60 ERA and only 49 walks in 260 innings. It was his last great season. In ’64 he slipped to a losing record on an inflated ERA and in ’65 he split the year between the Mets and the Giants and then was done. Warren finished with a record of 363-245 with a 3.09 ERA, 382 complete games, 63 shutouts, and 29 saves. He went to 14 All-Star games and in the post-season was 4-3 with a 3.05 ERA in eight games. He also hit .194 with 35 homers and 189 RBI’s in the regular season and .200 with four RBI’s in the post-season. In ’66 he pitched in Mexico and in ’67 in the minors – both as demonstrations for teams he was managing – which delayed his induction to the Hall to ’73. He managed Tulsa, St. Louis’ Triple A franchise, from ’67 to ’71, and went 373-339. In ’72 and ’73 he was the Cleveland pitching coach. He then coached in Japan from ’73 to ’78 before returning to the States to coach a few seasons in the California system. He left baseball in the early Eighties to run his farm in Oklahoma and passed away in 2003 at 82.

A bunch of the above guys have SABR bios.

Now we get to see how Topps did getting full representation of the ’73 Atlanta team. Two guys with over 50 at bats didn’t make the cut: Dick Dietz, the former Giant catcher, played first and caught for the ’73 Braves and had a pretty good year, hitting .295 with a .474 OBA and 24 RBI’s in just 139 at bats, but was released in March ’74 despite those numbers; and Oscar Brown, who hit .207 as an outfielder in his last season with the Braves. Dietz isn’t in the photo but Oscar is the last guy in the first row. On the pitching side Pat Dobson (3-7), Cecil Upshaw (0-1), and Joe Hoerner (2-2, 2 saves) had been traded during the season and have cards with the Yankees, Houston, and Kansas City, respectively. Other guys without cards, but with decisions include: Jim Panther (2-3 with a 7.63 ERA), a middle reliever in his final season up top; Jimmy Freeman (0-2, 7.71, 1 save), a one-time hot prospect also in his last season at 22; Max Leon (2-2, 5.33), in his first season and who would go on to be a staple in the Atlanta bullpen a few years; Gary Neibauer (2-1, 7.17), another older guy at the end of his run; Wenty – not Whitey – Ford (1-2, 5.51), a Bahamian who pitched up top only in ’73 and has a SABR bio; Tom Kelly (0-1, 2.84), also in his last year but who got some Atlanta innings the prior couple seasons; and Dave Cheadle (0-1, 18.00) with his two cup-of-coffee innings. On the photo Panther is the third guy from the right in the second row, Freeman the first guy in the third row, and Kelley the fourth guy in that row. That deprives us of 21 decisions which is somewhere near the low end. So Atlanta doesn’t fare too well. But it did have all those Aaron special cards.

Not too surprisingly, Atlanta’s entry for the baseball centennial in ’76 was the game in ’74 in which Aaron broke the Babe’s record. It happened in Atlanta’s fourth game and poor Al Downing was the victim. Darrell Evans was on board when Hank hit his shot in front of 53,000-plus and amid all those death threats. Tom House caught the ball in the Atlanta bullpen and there are at least three versions of the homer on YouTube.

Finally, we get an easy hook-up since Didier was a recent Brave:

1. Hank Aaron – of course – was on the ’73 Braves;

2. Aaron and Bob Didier ’69 to ‘72 Braves.

#482 - Bob Didier

In one of the ironies of baseball and card collecting we go from a player’s first card to a player’s last card and the latter guy – this post’s Bob Didier – is over two years younger than the former one. These guys are also connected in that they both made a Topps rookie team: Bob was the catcher on the ’69 one. Here he poses at Yankee Stadium but he was on his way out in ’73. Never a great hitter, he was adept behind the plate, and was so good at catching knuckleballs that he was Phil Niekro’s favorite catcher in Atlanta. By ’73, though, he’d been pushed back in the depth chart and he spent most of the season in Triple A where he had a nice year, hitting .290 and posting his normally excellent defensive numbers with just one error in over 100 games. In May he was traded to Detroit for Gene Lamont, another catcher. It would have seemed that the Tigers would be a better place to land since Bill Freehan was in decline mode and Duke Sims wasn’t the best defensive guy around and Bob sure did perform with his .455 in 22 at bats but it was just not to be. After the season he was sold to Boston which was never going to work with Carlton Fisk and Bob Montgomery already established. It would be his final season up top before Bob moved seamlessly into his new career.

Bob Didier was born in Mississippi and by the time high school rolled around had relocated to Baton Rouge. There he was an all-league quarterback where he was state champ his senior year as well as an all-state catcher for his dad’s team, which won regional championships in ’66 and ’67. He was drafted by the Braves that latter summer and then made a couple stops in A ball, at neither of which he hit terribly well. In ’68 he remained at that level, turned his average up a bunch to .243, and led league catchers in fielding. The next year he startled everyone by hitting .357 in spring training which was a good thing because the two incumbent Braves catchers of ’68 were not available: Joe Torre had gone to St. Louis for Orlando Cepeda; and Bob Tillman was injured. So Bob filled the void, taking over the position until Tillman got healthy, and doing the lion’s share of the work thereafter. He was ordered by manager Lum Harris to “sleep with Niekro” and it must have worked since the pitcher had one of his best seasons with Didier being his main guy behind the plate. Bob also caught Hoyt Wilhelm a bunch and between the two of them put in over 300 innings of catching knucklers. It wasn’t too surprising, then, that he led the NL in passed balls but outside of that his defense was pretty great as he only had three errors and was a big reason the team won the division. Bob himself came in fourth in NL ROY voting and was the starting catcher in the playoffs where he didn’t hit too well as Atlanta lost to the Mets. In ’70 a terrible offensive start pushed him behind Tillman and new guy Hal King in the depth chart and eventually back to Triple A where he hit .309 and had a .384 OBA. In ’71 the Braves had a new rookie catcher in Earl Williams and though Bob’s average improved a bunch the year very much resembled ‘70’s, though this time he hit .283 at the lower level. Then ’72 was nearly all Triple A - .259 with a .997 fielding average – and he probably didn’t help things by demanding a trade. That he eventually got but outside his brief time up in ’73 and ’74 it was all minors. In ’74 his average fell to .225 and after the season he went to Houston where in ’75 he hit .251. In ’76 he returned to the Atlanta system as a player/coach and finished with a .237 in the former role. For his career he hit .229 up top and .254 in the minors. He got no hits in his three post-season games but fielded well over .990 at all levels.

From his coaching gig in ’76 Didier moved into managing in various systems: Atlanta’s (’77), Seattle’s (’78-’79), Milwaukee’s (’80), and Oakland’s (’81-’83). He then moved to Oakland as a coach from ’84 to ’86. Then it was back to managing in the Houston chain (’87-’88) before returning to Seattle’s to coach for the Mariners (’89-’90). From ’91 to ’92 he was the Toronto roving catching instructor before resuming managing for them (’93-’95). He then worked as a minor league coach (’96) and scout (’97-’99) for the Yankees before going back to Toronto as a coach (2000) and then the Cubs (’01 and ’03-‘05) as a scout. In ’02 he managed in the Twins chain, from ’06 to ’07 coached in the Arizona chain, and then managed at their Yakima franchise from ’08 –’10. In 2011 he was named hitting instructor for the Brockton Rox, managed by Bill Buckner. He has a couple catching videos on YouTube.

I’m not too sure I get that second star bullet since the only groups that named rookie teams back then – Topps themselves, Baseball Digest, and The Sporting News – didn’t differentiate by leagues.

In 1968 Detroit won its first World Series in 23 years and it was that championship that the team contributed to the ’76 baseball centennial. ’68 was the Year of the Pitcher and it was thus fitting that the Series opponents were led by their aces, both MVP winners. Bob Gibson of St. Louis had his 22 wins and that microscopic 1.12 ERA and a very foreboding Series history and Denny McLain cranked out 31 wins, the first time that number had been reached in over a generation. The Cards were the sitting Series winners and again they took their opponent to seven games. But this time Detroit prevailed, led not by McLain – who went 1-2 despite pitching pretty well – but by Mickey Lolich who went 3-0 with a 1.67 ERA including a Game Seven win over Gibson himself, who was mighty tough with his own 1.67 ERA and 35 K’s in his three complete games. Al Kaline, Jim Northrup, and Norm Cash were the hitting leaders for Detroit and Lou Brock and Orlando Cepeda for the Cards.

So these guys were pretty much just ships passing in the night:

1. Didier and Hank Aaron ’69 to ’72 Braves;

2. Aaron and Darrell Porter ’75 to ’76 Brewers;

3. Porter and Jerry Terrell ’78 to ’80 Royals.